MOROCCO

/Travelled 2017 December/

MARRAKESH OUARZAZATE TAROUDANT ESSAOUIRA SIDI KAOUKI TAGHAZOUT AGADIR

A WEEK IN MOROCCO

One week of such a great and diverse country as Morocco is definitely not enough, but sometimes it is all you have, so we will tell you how to make the most of it. You can easily spend a week surfing at the coast of Atlantic Ocean, trekking in Atlas Mountains, or exploring the desert. Is it possible to see all of it somehow in just a few days?

Let’s try! The plan is to fly into Marrakesh, get a car and drive across the Atlas Mountains to Ouarzazate, the door to the desert, get back to the seaside and do down from Essaouira to Agadir along the coast, and the outbound flight from Agadir. That makes around 1000 km.

In case you fly in and out from Marrakesh, you can make a full circle of similar distance: Marrakesh – Ouarzazate – Agadir – Essaouira – Marrakesh. The same would work in and out from Agadir.

MARRAKESH

Marrakesh is probably one of the most famous cities in Morocco and usually a starting point for most travellers arriving there by plane. Busy, crowded, with lots of markets or, generally speaking, one big marketplace in medina (the old town). Originally, we were not even planning to stay in Marrakesh thinking that it was too touristic and contemplating how to get out to nature as soon as possible. Nevertheless, it turned out to be a great experience for a day to look around and to stay overnight.

The first recommendation is to take a free walking tour (for example this one) around medina. It will give you a general understanding about the points of interest, some history and local touch, depending on the guide. The two-hour tour starts at the central square Jemaa el-Fnaa (google map) and takes you through the labyrinth of souks (markets and workshops) the Jewish quarter, stopping at some mosques and other places of interest. Quite handy if you intend to stay in Marrakesh just for one day. After that you can continue exploring on your own, enjoy getting lost in medina, try some traditional Moroccan food prepared in tajine, and definitely come back to medina at night when it looks completely different.

When you get tired of bustling streets, visit the beautiful Bahia palace (google maps) for a quieter surrounding, the spacious inner yard and great traditional Moroccan architecture of the end of XIX century.

Price: around 7 EUR

If you have time for only one museum in your day, the best call would be a museum of Yves Saint Lauren (google map), who used to regularly visit and stay in Marrakesh, drawing inspiration from Morocco for his haute couture collections. Even if you’re not a fashion aficionado, this place is magic and so different from anything else in Marrakesh. After you spend half a day in medina, the getaway to this clean, minimalistic space, and chic aesthetics of the exhibition is such a contrast.

Price: around 9 EUR.

Once you are there you can also visit the nearby Jardin Majorelle (google maps). The epic Instagram view of a garden with deep blue walls, green cacti and palm trees will cost you another 9 EUR. Actually, it is quite busy with tourists, so it’s worth booking online to avoid the que and save your valuable time.

Where to stay:

The recommendation is to find a hotel in a riad, traditional Moroccan house built around a central courtyard. There are lots of hotels in riads at all price ranges. Another cultural experience is a rooftop breakfast – nothing can beat a cup of tea or coffee with a view over the roofs in the morning sun. So, check out if a hotel has it and enjoy.

OVER TO MOUNTAINS TO OUARZAZATE

The driving distance from Marrakesh to Ouarzazate is around 190 km but keep in mind you have to cross the Atlas mountain range, and it takes at least 4 hours. It’s worth to get on the road early in the morning, so you can take it easy later, stop along the road and enjoy the mountains whenever you feel like it. (Renting a car in Morocco is nothing extraordinary, just make sure you get a full coverage insurance).

As soon as you leave Marrakesh the view of the road and Atlas peaks on the horizon captivates you, and it just gets better as you go – from the green hills to plain yellow and red rocks until you get to the top and then start going down from the hills again to reach the door to the dessert.

The best place to stay is not in Ouarzazate (google map) itself but in a nearby town (a village actually) of Ait Benhadu (google map), famous for its UNESCO World Heritage site - a castle (ksar) dating back to 17th century. There are several decently priced hotels around. Chez Brahim (google map), for example which overlooks the ksar. Take your time to explore the castle, watch the sunset, a sunrise, or both over the towers. By the way, it gets quite cold at night here, so check the weather forecast before going.

Ouarzazate has another name - “Ouallywood”. At least two major film production studios are located here, and several A-level films and TV series had their episodes shot here, such as Gladiator or Game of Thrones. You can visit the fake castle the CLA Studios (google map) with its fake caste made for movies and a museum (9 EUR), or the real castle at similar price, Taourirt Kasbah (google map) which also frequently appears on big screens. If you are into castles in the desert, there two more authentic ones nearby, Kasbah Amridil (google map) and Skoura (google map). We did not go further east into the desert, but you can certainly do that if you have more time. There are plenty of tours with overnight stays in the desert but that requires a few more days.

ALONG THE COAST

Our next destination was to get back to the coast and the chose the spend a night in Taroudant (google map) after a half-day drive (270 km in 4-5 hours) from Ouarzazate. Taroudant is like a miniature Marrakesh with a busy and lively medina.

Definitely, you must take a drive along the coast from Agadir to Essaouira or the other way around, depending on your route. In our case, we drove all the way from Taroudant to Essaouira (300 km in 4 hours, half of the road is a good quality highway A7, see map at the top).

Essaouira (google map) is was one of our favourite places in Morocco, with its white stone fort walls, amazing medina, fishermen port and even a proper beach. All in all, it is a big town with a great vibe. Worth to stay for a night or two. Just look at the pictures! It’s especially cool to be there in low season, later in the fall or beginning of winter when the weather is still good and the water still warm enough to catch some waves in the ocean.

When it comes to surfing the place to go is Sidi Kaouki (google map), a small surfers and fishermen village half-hour drive south. The locals say the waves here are always bigger than in Essaouira and the whole place is totally chill.

When you read it on internet, Taghazout (google map) close to Agadir is also described as small fishing village town and a great place to surf, but in reality so much construction was going on there in the recent years and so many new hotels were built that it became too touristic and overcrowded. Of course, there are nice views of colourful houses climbing up the hill, lots of places to eat, nice beaches on the north side of town, but it’s far from authentic experience. And once you reach Agadir the authenticity is wiped out altogether. That is just a big resort town with plenty of big hotels and all sorts of activities for tourists.

The best things that you can experience in Morocco are on the road, in the mountains, in the desert, along the cost. That’s where you can stop for lunch in a small village, or even do a normal tourist thing, such as buying a souvenir, a piece of ceramics or a bottle of unique argan oil, taking a picture of goats climbing Argania trees (yeh, that’s a thing in Morocco, we saw them even along the main road from Marrakesh to Essaouira) – all of it will be so much more authentic than spending a day in Agadir :)